In a world darkened by ethnic conflicts that tear nations apart, Canada stands as a model of how people of different cultures can live and work together in peace, prosperity, and mutual respect.
U.S. President Bill Clinton 

Travel through the eras of  history and the development of the various nations that make up Canada today.

First Blow | Detroit | Queenston Heights | Stoney Creek | Maps

Queenston Heights

Having saved the situation in the west, Brock handed over the forces there to a subordinate and rushed back east; he arrived at Fort George on the Niagara eight days after Detroit surrendered.  For a time operations were suspended as the result of an armistice negotiated by Prevost, and during this period the United States brought up additional strength to the Niagara frontier.

On 13 October the Americans collected here began to cross into Canada at Queenston.  Brock, with characteristic energy and offensive spirit, galloped to the spot; and in leading the small force on the ground against the Americans, who had gained the summit of the escarpment, he fell in action.  He never knew that the capture of Detroit had brought him a knighthood.  His successor, General Sheaffe, collected all avail, able troops and destroyed the invading force later in the day, winning a victory which further raised the spirits of the people of Upper Canada.  In November another incompetent American commander made a gesture at invasion on the Niagara above the Falls, but this came to nothing.  The campaigning season ended with no part of Upper Canada held by the Americans, and with an important section of the Territory of Michigan in British occupation.

Although the war went on for two more years, the worst danger to Upper Canada had passed in 1812.  In that year, when the British forces were so small and the morale of the population so low, the Americans had their great opportunity.  That they failed to profit by it was due partly to their own unpreparedness, but to a large extent also it was due to Isaac Brock.